Around the World in Pies

The Daily Post Writing challenge this week is about pies. Now, I don’t eat pies, not the sweet kind anyway, not because I don’t like them. I don’t eat them because I’m a diabetic and pies made without real sugar just isn’t the same to me. Ah, but savory pies. Now that’s a pie I can sink my teeth into.

I thought, since I’m not much of a baker, I’d talk about the different pies of the world. Don’t you ever wonder how a pie came to be? I mean, who would have thought to make a pie out of nuts off a tree? See what I mean? Or who first thought to make a pie with lemons? Or limes? Or with meat and vegetables?

So lets take a quick trip around the world in pies.

So lets start with the humble but glorious Apple pie. Apple pies have shown up throughout history in many forms since the Middle Ages. The first apple pies were not made with sugar as only the very rich at that time could afford sugar. Also, from what I found, pies were not made with a crust, what held the pie was called a ‘coffin’ and used only as a container.

There is also a town in New Mexico that named themselves after pies. It’s called Pie Town, New Mexico.

notsohumblepie.blogspot.com

Then we have one of my favorites, Lemon Meringue pie. It’s said that the modern lemon meringue pie was first made by Alexander Frehse, a Swiss baker from Romandie (Switzerland). I learn something new every day.

landolakes.com

Now we go to the Pecan Pie, some people love it, some don’t. It’s pretty sweet the ones I’ve tasted. It is believed this nutty dessert was invented by French settlers shortly after they arrived in New Orleans and were introduced to the nut by Native Americans. Yeah ancestors! Attempts to trace the dish’s origin have not found any recipes dated earlier than 1886, so who really knows? Some say it’s a variant of the Chess pies which are very similar.

Pecan Pie. Photo by @joefoodie

How about some savory pies? Like the meat pies of Australia and New Zealand? According to Wikipedia: An Australian or New Zealand meat pie is a hand-sized meat pie containing largely diced or minced meat and gravy, sometimes with onion, mushrooms, or cheese and often consumed as a takeaway food snack. The pie itself is similar to the United Kingdom’s steak pie. Sounds good to me!

Via Wikepedia

Or Natchitoches Meat Pie. Again via Wikipedia;

The Natchitoches meat pie is a regional dish from northern Louisiana, United States. It is one of the official state foods of Louisiana.

Ingredients include ground beef, ground pork, onions, peppers, garlic, oil, and a pie shell. Natchitoches meat pies are often fried in peanut oil because of that oil’s high smoking temperature. A number of restaurants in the historic district in Natchitoches serve meat pies, and frozen pies are available from grocers in northern Louisiana. Restaurants in the historic district in Natchitoches serve the pies and you’ll also find them at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

An annual Meat Pie Festival is held in September and includes pie making demonstrations, a meat pie cook-off and live music.

Via Kimberly Vardeman

How about Spanakopita? What’s that you ask? Spanakopita is a Greek savory pie made with a filling of chopped spinach, feta cheese, onions or scallions, egg, and seasoning. The filling is wrapped or layered in phyllo (filo) pastry with butter and/or olive oil, either in a large pan from which individual servings are cut, or rolled into individual triangular servings.

While the filo-dough recipe is most common, many recipes from the Greek islands call for a crust made of flour and water to form a crunchier, calzone-like exterior in place of the flaky filo dough. The pastry is golden in color when baked, the color often enhanced by butter and egg yolk. Other white, fresh, preferably salted cheeses may also be mixed with, or substituted for, the feta cheese.

Yesterday i read about pies and today I’m reading about pies. That Lemon Meringue pie looks delicious. I haven’t had one in ages. Yesterday Fishy and Not a Punk Rocker teased me with that pecan pie. I love that stuff. But I will not fall victim to temptation. I’m not eating me and on a low carb and low cal diet. So you keep your pies history and photos up there in Canada.!!! Hands on hips and foot stomping. 🙂

Looks Yummy. I am definitely a traditionalist when it comes to pies-I think. Recently I discovered my mum likes Key Lime Pie. I was sure to purchase it for her birthday, instead of cake. She really enjoyed it.

Pies, did I see pies? I love pies. I would get them for my birthday if someone remembered. Mine was the last of 3 in a one week period so no one wanted anymore cake. My favorite hands down is lemon meringue. I eat everything but the crust. Have a weakness for the meringue. Not a fan of savories but I’ve had the Spanakopita and done right, it’s quite tasty. Great finger food on New Years Eve. Personally, I like a good apple strudel better than a pie though. Now I’m hungry. Where can I get some lemon meringue???

wow..this is such an informative post on pie ! and I love all of them..In India , we don’t have pies as such…but people do make pie using recipes from the net…The only pie I have baked is apple…But these all look so tempting… !

Pies are just the best thing if you’re really hungry! Over here in the UK when we talk about pies our first thought would be the meat varieties rather than the sweet ones, not that we don’t love the sweet ones too of course, but we don’t tend to indulge in the wide range of sweet ones that you do over there, and we just classify them as desserts generally.

The other types of pie you didn’t mention is pizzas! They get called pies sometimes in the states don’t they? I’ve seen that on TV shows anyway 🙂

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